Last week I announced my somewhat-unexpected admission to the Clarion Writers Workshop, the six-week-long program at UC San Diego that involves intense peer critique and (I’m told) a kick-ass watergun fight. I also promised to explain, the following Friday (re: today) about the Kickstarter project I’m launching to help raise funds for Clarion.
Kickstarter is a website dedicated to finding backers for creative projects. My Kickstarter project is called Love in the Time of Robots.
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| I drew this guy in Microsoft Paint when I first conceived the idea. |
Love in the Time of Robots will be a short story collection—an interactive one. As the blurb says, it’s “an anthology of fiction inspired by you…” Visit my Kickstarter page : once there, you’ll see that you have the option to donate $5, $25, $50, or $100. In return, you’ll receive:
--$5: A personal Thank You card, and your name listed as “Supporter” on my blog.
--$25: A personal Thank You card, your name listed as “Contributor” on my blog, and a 500 word story with any plot-line or character-name of your choice, dedicated to you and published in the e-magazine The Fast-Forward Festival.
--$50: A 1,000 word story with any plot-line or character-name of your choice, dedicated to you and published in The Fast-Forward Festival. Plus a personal Thank You card, and your name listed as “Contributor” on my blog.
--$100: A 3,000 word story with any plot-line or character-name of your choice, dedicated to you and published in The Fast-Forward Festival. Plus a personal Thank You card, and your name listed as “Grand Contributor” on my blog.
Each of the stories written for Love in the Time of Robots will be published first in The Fast-Forward Festival, and then, once my fundraising goal is reached, in an e-book. All contributors of $25 and up will be sent complimentary copies of this e-book (and get bragging rights that they helped inspire it).
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What kind of story ideas do I want? Hmm… First of all, I want to be challenged. My fiction-writing skills are versatile, but need to be even more so by the time I reach Clarion. I’ll be writing at least one story a week at Clarion, under the guidance of professional authors and my worthy peers.
I really do believe that a compelling story can be made out of any idea: it’s just a matter of approaching it with the right tone of voice. A short answer, then, is that I want whatever story concepts you can throw at me. That’s why I decided that Love in the Time of Robots, however random, was a perfect title for this anthology: I expect that the stories I write for it will be quite quirky and random as well.
I am a speculative fiction author, of course, so I’d appreciate ideas with speculative fiction slants… Here are some silly examples, just off the top of my head:
--The flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz have a reunion where they rehash old times and decide to form a chess club.
--A man is plagued by a mysterious stalker, only to discover that it’s himself, from the future…
--A banjo player in Alabama swampland has an encounter with a confused and misdirected genie…
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I want to thank everyone for your support. Being a fiction writer is both a way of life and a nerve-wracking gamble, and Clarion is a huge step toward gaining stability in my career. Your contributions will help make it less of a financial burden on myself and my family.
My Kickstarter project will open any time between the 10th and the 15th of April (depending on when the website minions verify my request). I’ll announce its opening and post the link at the top of this page.
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| "Download Complete: 5 terabytes love. I have no more space in my heart." |
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